


definitions

by Astrid_Goes_For_A_Spin



Series: Iris Week 2020 [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Aspec Barry Allen, Barry Allen/Patty Spivot (past) - Freeform, Demisexual Barry Allen, Eddie was an A+ boyfriend, F/M, Iris Week 2020, Iris West/Eddie Thawne (past), Tooth-Rotting Fluff, aspec Iris West, aspec WestAllen, demisexual Iris West, demisexual WestAllen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:20:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24863725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrid_Goes_For_A_Spin/pseuds/Astrid_Goes_For_A_Spin
Summary: Day 1 of Iris Week 2020: Romantic Relationship."I mean, I could get turned on," Barry continues, averting his eyes. "But I guess I never really…understood why people cared so much about sex, until we were. Having it."AKA the WestAllen demisexual awakening that no one asked for.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West
Series: Iris Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799020
Comments: 16
Kudos: 36





	definitions

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! Welcome to the first day of Iris West-Allen Appreciation Week 2020! Day 1 - romantic relationship Iris. Since this is June, I wanted a lil pride in here, and the only thing I'm even remotely qualified to write is the asexuality spectrum umbrella!

.

After all of the aliens have been mopped up, they’ve had their victory party and sent all of their extradimensional visitors back home, Barry and Iris flop into their bed, side-by-side.

“I can’t believe you had _Oliver Queen_ on your three list and didn’t even know he was the Green Arrow,” Barry snorts.

Iris’s mind blanks. “What?”

“When you first met Oliver, you said – you and Eddie-”

_Oh_.

“I forgot about that,” Iris says honestly. “I haven’t even thought about the idea of a three list in years. And Oliver Queen? Felicity can keep that emotional baggage, no thank you.”

Barry turns to stare at her. “You’ve never thought about-”

“Why would I?” An unwelcome thought occurs to her. “Have you?”

“No,” Barry says immediately. “Why would I?”

At this, Iris turns to him; their faces are only inches apart. “That’s – it’s kind of weird, right? That we haven’t-”

Barry stares into her eyes, then looks away. “To be honest, the idea of a three list has always kind of…not made any sense to me.”

“Like, why would you even be with the person if you already want someone else?” Iris asks. “It was Eddie’s idea, I wasn’t…I mean, I just chose handsome celebrities, I didn’t actually want to sleep with any of them. It was like a game.”

After a few seconds of silence, Barry says, with the air of someone confessing, “I never really wanted to sleep with anybody before we got together.”

Iris stares, a mixture of fear and something else fluttering deep inside her. She knows for sure that Barry was not a virgin two months ago – and neither was she, for that matter.

“I mean, I could get turned on,” Barry continues, averting his eyes. “But I guess I never really…understood why people cared so much about sex, until we were. Having it.”

Before she can identify how she might want to reply to the lingering questions this raises, Iris blurts, “Me either.”

“You – but you-” Barry is gaping.

“You weren’t a virgin either!” Iris points out.

“I thought-”

A gust of wind and Barry has his phone in his hand, holding the screen out to her.

Iris squints. “The asexuality spectrum?”

“It’s a thing,” Barry says sheepishly. “I looked into it. After. I mean, I just – I felt like something was wrong? With me? Because I-”

“Never felt like you wanted to screw a stranger’s brain out?” Iris finishes. “Only ever felt like – you could share that with someone-”

“Close.”

Iris is still scrolling. She’s _twenty-seven years old_ , how could she have never –

It took Iris a long time – a _long_ time – to understand that she wasn’t on the same page as everyone else. She remembers kissing high school and college boyfriends and pulling away at the idea of anything else. She remembers needing a lot of time with Eddie before she ever felt aroused – they were living together before they slept together for the first time. He’d been so understanding and patient with her, and Iris suppresses a little twinge of guilt for how quickly she and Barry had fallen into bed together after all of Eddie’s gentleness.

“Patty actually – told me about this,” Barry says, fiddling with the hem of the bedsheets. “Because she thought – that there was something I wasn’t telling her, because I’d sleep over there and have nightmares but I almost never wanted to-”

“Well, to be fair, you were hiding that you were the Flash,” Iris reminds him, eyebrows raised. She’s always been good at picking up new jargon, but reading through this vocabulary relating to her own sexual experience is overwhelming. The words slip away from her. _Aspec, aro, gray-A, recipromantic, queerplatonic partnerships, allo, demisexual…_

“Did you – know there’s a whole word for this?” Iris finally says. “For being mostly, like, not interested in sex? Unless you really love the person?”

“Yeah. I thought I might be – after Patty and I…”

Iris puts the phone down. “Bear, please tell me – she didn’t make you feel-”

“When I’ve slept with people, it has been because I’ve wanted to,” Barry assures her. “I mean, I was…excruciatingly uncomfortable fooling around in high school, because I was-”

“More interested in catching your mom’s killer than girls?”

“Yeah. But since then, it’s-”

“Demisexual,” Iris finishes, testing out the word. “I held on until Eddie. I couldn’t – I guess I really needed someone who was there for _me_ , and he was definitely around long enough for me to start feeling attracted.”

She can feel a tiny bit of tension in Barry’s body ease.

“Did you think-”

“Perfume commercials-”

“I just didn’t understand why-”

Both of them start talking over each other and suddenly Iris is in a giggle fit.

She can’t believe they’ve been dating – really, properly dating – for two full months now and they’ve never had a conversation about their sexualities. It’s absurd. But then, so many things in their lives are, and this – Barry – has always just seemed to click right into place. It doesn’t surprise her that if she is this – _demi_ – that they’d barely realize they weren’t allosexual. (There’s a word for people who have “normal” levels of attraction?!) She and Barry have never needed to make love to feel intimate, and they’ve been in love for a lot longer than they’ve been _together_.

“The fact that you’re a human vibrator doesn’t hurt either,” Iris snickers.

Barry’s face gets red. “I – uh, actually, this didn’t happen? Before?”

Sensing an opportunity to tease him without mercy, Iris leans even further into his space. “What do you mean?”

“I had no idea that any of that would happen,” Barry moans, his voice muffled by the hand over his face. “It – it _never_ did with Patty, not even when I would-”

“Seriously?” Iris squeaks, laughing again. “It is one of the serious perks to dating the Flash.” In fact, Iris can’t imagine even wanting to sleep with anyone else, and that’s one reason why. It’s hard for her to find someone who’s not Barry – pale and freckled and vibrating his fingers, planting kisses faster than she can breathe – sexy at all.

“Complete surprise,” Barry says flatly.

“I’ll bet that was stressful, though,” Iris ponders. “Keeping it…slow…in the bedroom.” She’s still thinking about the zippers and buttons he’d ruined in the early days, unable to keep his powers under control in his excitement.

She can’t imagine ever wanting to kiss someone again who didn’t taste like the eye of a hurricane. 

“That was very stressful,” Barry whispers. “I don’t – I don’t even _remember_ how slow regular people move? And it’s not like I had a lot of…pre-speed bedroom experience.”

Iris is cracking up. She cups the side of Barry’s face with her hand tenderly. “I can’t even imagine how difficult this is for Supergirl.”

Now he’s laughing too. “I think she’s broken some noses. Dating humans…is a struggle.” Barry’s not laughing anymore, just sinking into her hand. “It is very sexy to me that I can be myself with you.”

“You’re pretty sexy yourself, Flash.” Iris smirks. “I don’t know why the ladies aren’t all lining up.”

“Because I run away from them,” Barry explains patiently. “I don’t need random strangers I’ve saved coming after me, I have literally the perfect woman.”

“Barry Allen,” Iris says, her tone mock-scandalized. She fans at her face. “Are you trying to seduce me?” Licking her lips, she can’t help but think of the way his pale chest feels vibrating under her hands.

“Only you,” he murmurs back, and Iris grins, slow and wide, as lightning begins to crackle along his skin.

.


End file.
